Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Democrat Kathy Hochul’s (left) New York Congressional election victory over Republican Jane Corwin is directly tied to the latter’s support for Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) plan to destroy Medicare. Ryan wants to transform the popular entitlement into a plan in which seniors are given vouchers to purchase private health insurance, despite the fact that the vouchers will not keep pace with rising costs. This stunning upset gives the Republicans pause regarding Ryan’s scheme, which also involves further tax cuts for the wealthy. Already Republican senators Lisa Murkowski (AK), Susan Collins (ME) and Scott Brown (MA) have announced either reservations or opposition to the plan. With the Hochul victory, one can only hope that Ryan keeps touting his plan:

Democrats scored an upset in one of New York’s most conservative Congressional districts on Tuesday, dealing a blow to the national Republican Party in a race that largely turned on the party’s plan to overhaul Medicare.The results set off elation among Democrats and soul-searching among Republicans, who questioned whether they should rethink their commitment to the Medicare plan, which appears to have become a liability heading into the 2012 elections.Two months ago, the Democrat, Kathy Hochul, was considered an all-but-certain loser in the race against the Republican, Jane Corwin. But Ms. Hochul seized on the Republican’s embrace of the proposal from Representative Paul D. Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin, to overhaul Medicare, and she never let up.…Voters, who turned out in strikingly large numbers for a special election, said they trusted Ms. Hochul, the county clerk of Erie County, to protect Medicare.